In a Humanosphere blog post, Tom Paulson, founder and lead journalist at Humanosphere, discusses a new analysis that challenges the conventional belief of the “virtuous cycle,” which asserts that preventing child deaths reduces birth rates and improves the economic well-being and health of communities. The analysis finds “no evidence to support the claim that reducing child deaths leads to a reduction in population growth. In fact … reducing child mortality initially causes a spike in population numbers” (4/23).